Plasma or led screen

Jul 15, 2004 64 Replies

Now reaching the end of some works to my house I am thinking of fitting a 42" plasma screen t.v. I recall reading on an old thread, that I can't find, that they produce some heat. I don't intend to mount it in an enclosure so don,t think this will be a problem. What does concern me is its possible weight and type of fixing to the wall. I was considering using m10 expanding type rawbolt. It will be fixed above an unused chimney opening to old stock type bricks. Will the rawbolts hold it or would a resin based bolt fixing be preferrable ? Your thought or opinions appreciated.


Unrelated advice but I suggest you think about fixing it lower down. Eyeline when seated is usually below 1m and it's more comfortable to look downwards than upwards so I'd suggest you keep the top of the screen below 1m.

You often see flat screens in design mags mounted where a picture would be but that's because it looks good in photographs not because it's pleasant to watch sitting down.

Nick Brooks

Waste of time and money, five year lifespan.

They aren't that heavy - nowhere near as heavy as a biggish radiator full of water. The brackets that come with them usually allow for 3 screws per bracket. As long as you use sensible sized screds (say 60mm+ no8/10) with wall plugs it will be more than adequate.

As for he heat, yes, they do produce some heat. Maybe 400W at a guess for a 42". But again, this isn't anywhere near as much as a radiator :-)

*Interested*

Really?

Si

Not quite that bad - but they are power hungry and I don't particularly like the display 'quality' (colour, pizel size/edge definition).

Can't beat a nice projector.

What with a lamp life of 3000 hours, noisy fans, image distortions if not projected centrally onto a flat screen and limited contrast?

Give me a nice CRT any day :-)

Nick Brooks

Lamps are cheap.

All but the cheapest projectors are pretty quiet these days, certainly not loud enough to be heard when watching a film.

I'll give you that one - but a permanent mounting means you can get it just right.

Can't agree with that.

Oddly enough that's what we have ;-). The 32" fits into the room just great.

I believe this is a common myth. Quick web search found this, which suggests

21 years if used an average of 4 hours per day:

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if used 24/7 then they will only last upto 5 years.

Alan.

Things seem to have changed more rapidly than I realised. I've just found a Barco projector with a contrast ration > 15,000:1!!!!!

Mind you it does cost £8,000 so it should be good

Nick Brooks

A better explanation:

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As if that's likely to happen. Surely most homes that have plebvision have it on 24/7?

Umm and manufacturers estiamtes seem to be a tad inflated. Five years was the lifespan I was quoted when we considered using a plasma screen for installation in a work environment (which would have been 8/5 usage). We bought one, it didn't even make five years.

How does it do that then? Seeing as the blackest black you get will be the intensity of the white screen under your ambient lighting!

Dave

Depending on use but yes, plasma will be superceded by LCD TVs

Jonni

Grunff wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@uni-berlin.de:

Anyone care to widen the discussion to include LCD screens, which are now coming on the market in bigger sizes - 32 to 42"

I would be interested in any experience and I expect OP dave would be too

mike

There's a comparison table of the various screen technologies at

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link is to a table at the end of the article).

They suggest nominal lifespans for plasma at 25k-35k hours, compared to 50k-75k for LCD (the backlight it what goes, as many laptop owners will attest) and 80k+ for CRTs. Earlier in the article they suggest that plasma is a stopgap technology that will disappear as the big LCDs get brighter and cheaper.

Chip C

Nope - plasma will be superceded by polymer - currently in R&D and early prototype phase.

Easy, no ambient lighting. B-)

Another problem with LCD and plasma screens is the several frame delay they introduce into the picture. AFAIK not many come with audio delay lines to similary delay the audio, you may find you have to get yet another box to delay the audio. Unless picture late by sevral frames doesn't bother you.

Hitachi are claiming 60K hours for their latest plasma panels...

I'm not convinced that the screen burn issues are resolved though, even with the picture shifting etc, methods employed to attempt to limit the effect.

Lee

Where the permissible viewing angle is still poor.

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